1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a terminal unit, an ink supply unit, and an adapter that can be mounted, for example, on a cartridge holder of an inkjet printer.
2. Related Art
Known inkjet printers generally perform printing by ejecting ink from a recording head onto a paper. Such a printer includes a cartridge holder on which an ink cartridge containing ink is mounted. Ink is supplied from the ink cartridge to the recording head through an ink supply needle arranged in the cartridge holder. The supplied ink is ejected from the recording head onto the paper to perform printing.
In such a printer, when a relatively large amount of printing is performed, ink may be supplied from an ink tank that contains more ink than an ink cartridge to continuously and stably supply ink to the recording head.
For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-224529 describes a configuration in which an attachment is mounted on a cartridge holder. The attachment is in the form of a cartridge including a case that receives an ink supplying tube. A circuit substrate is attached to a side surface of the case. Ink is supplied from the outside to an ink supply needle of the printer through the attachment and the ink supplying tube. As a configuration that continuously supplies ink from the outside with further ease, the ink supplying tube may be directly connected to the ink supply needle without using the attachment.
In a printer such as that described above, when the ink cartridge or the cartridge-form attachment is mounted on the cartridge holder, the circuit substrate (terminal group) arranged on the side surface of the case of the ink cartridge or the like is usually connected to a terminal portion (electrical connection portion) of the cartridge holder.
Predetermined information (e.g., identification data of ink cartridge, data of remaining amount of ink, etc.) is read from the circuit substrate. Based on the predetermined information, the printer performs printing, that is, ink is ejected from the recording head.
However, in a configuration that supplies ink from the ink supplying tube to the ink supply needle without using the cartridge-form attachment having the circuit substrate attached to the side surface of the case, the predetermined information is not read from the circuit substrate. Thus, printing cannot be performed even if ink is supplied.